


Apply When Needed

by Cesare



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-26
Updated: 2010-09-26
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:29:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cesare/pseuds/Cesare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Five years you've made fun of my prescription mattress, and the second we land on Earth, you go buy a body pillow. I believe I'm extremely justified in pointing and laughing with a hearty ha, and furthermore, ha."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apply When Needed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chkc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chkc/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Chibi Mcshep - 2010-02-13 - Pillow](https://archiveofourown.org/works/120408) by [chkc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chkc/pseuds/chkc). 



"What," John says defensively, just as if Rodney didn't walk in on him with his arms around a gigantic blue pillow.

 _"You_ what," answers Rodney, folding his arms. "Five years you've made fun of my prescription mattress, and the second we land on Earth, you go buy a body pillow. I believe I'm extremely justified in pointing and laughing with a hearty ha, and furthermore, ha."

"I didn't buy a body pillow," John sulks. "I was given a therapeutic - look, talk to Dr. Keller, she's the one who gave it to me."

"Uh, no, I don't think I will," says Rodney. "We may have broken up on relatively good terms but that still doesn't mean we want to see each other or talk to each other any more than we have to, yet. It's only been two weeks."

"Yeah, well," John says, "it was her idea."

"Okay," Rodney says, "why?"

"Uh, I kind of got stabbed in the gut a couple of times in the past year?" Surely only John Sheppard could say something like that in tones of pissy sarcasm.

"So she suggested that you could shield yourself from future attacks with a big pillow?"

John glares, but Rodney just tips up his chin and stares at him down his nose. John looks away. "It's to keep me from sleeping on my stomach," he admits grudgingly.

"Why?" Rodney tucks his hands in tighter, hiding the way they're clenching in alarm. "Is it - tearing something, or hurting you...?" Oh God.

"No," John snaps. "No, it's just," he continues more reluctantly, "it's not too comfortable, is all."

Wow. Rodney's been in painfully contorted alien bondage alongside John multiple times and never heard him so much as hint that it bothered him. He's not sure if this means John's getting more communicative or if they're just getting too old to shake off things like multiple puncture wounds anymore.

"Well, at least now that they've shipped over a few things, you have a bigger bed to accommodate you and your new friend," says Rodney, though his voice comes out sounding tighter and more... weirdly jealous than he intends it to.

"Oh yeah," John mutters, "it's gonna be a blast." He shoves the thing down a little further, and now Rodney sees that it has a cord with a control attached.

"A heating element too?" Rodney asks.

"Heat's good for the," John sketches a gesture across his midsection.

"She should've just prescribed you a girlfriend."

"McKay..." John scrubs his face with both hands briefly and completely fails to volley the expected comeback. He just keeps looking down, plucking at the seam of the stupid body pillow.

The way he says it, and the way he's not meeting Rodney's gaze - it's like everything shifts and comes into focus differently, and where Rodney had before sometimes wondered if John might be gay, and then told himself it was probably just wishful thinking, now he thinks that maybe, no, it never was.

And simultaneously and parallel to that, Rodney realizes: this conversation really bothers him; it bothers him a _lot;_ and it bothers him because he can't stand to think of John sleeping with a stupid _pillow_ to keep him comfortable when he ought to have someone who loves him in his bed.

"Or a boyfriend," he tries.

John tenses a little, and his ears redden, but he doesn't otherwise react.

Maybe the breakup with Jennifer's made him reckless, but right now, rejection doesn't seem as intimidating a prospect as it always has before. Rodney drops his arms and ventures, "I could potentially help with that."

"Yeah?" John sounds almost normal, almost casual, but he's reddening further. "How do you figure?"

"Well. If you make a little room..."

John hesitates, and elbows the pillow aside, pushing it a Rodney-width away.

It feels almost surreal as Rodney walks over, his heart thundering in his ears, and gets onto the bed, slipping into the space John made for him. And then he's slipping further, his arm around John, cheek pressed where John was stabbed and then stabbed again.

"It doesn't hurt?" he asks, brushing his cheek against John's stomach. He hates to think of John in pain all this time.

"Not anymore." John's hands settle on him lightly, with more care than Rodney would have imagined John would ever show. But then, he's never seen John blush like he is now, either.

"What about this..." Rodney squeezes him just a little. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah," John laughs, a little shakily. His fingers move through Rodney's hair, a feather touch.

"Good."

"You could stay," John says, and adds, sounding more like himself, "I even got this new pillow."

"Oh yeah?" Rodney smiles.

"Yeah," John says, pulling it closer, tucking it warm against Rodney's other side. "It's pretty nice."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Bolster](https://archiveofourown.org/works/971498) by [magdarko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magdarko/pseuds/magdarko)




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